The Well Connected Camera – the Sony Bloggie

by Lori Cunningham

During my time at the Consumer Electronics Show last month, I went to an event hosted by my fave blogger network, the Clever Girls Collective.  These ladies are smart and really know how to connect brands with bloggers.  At their event for tech bloggers, they featured Sony’s new Bloggie Live camera.  Each of us were given a new Bloggie Live*, which hadn’t even been released to the public yet.  We were all elated and we began snapping lots of pictures.  What fascinated me with the new Bloggie Live was the fact that it was Wi-Fi enabled and allows you to stream your video footage live to a Qik account.  That means that anyone can watch your streaming live from their computer, tablet, or phone by checking it out on your Qik account (can be marked private or public).  Now that’s slick!

Why the Flip Never Did it For Me

The Flip became immensely popular due to its ease of uploading pictures – just stick the fold-out USB  stick into your computer and begin uploading.  No cords to deal with.  The Flip did a tremendous service by adding convenience to uploading pics and really pushed businesses along to understand the consumers’ need for convenience.  What I didn’t like about the Flip was that it only records video.  Still pictures cannot be captured unless you crop a picture from the video, which is time-consuming and confusing.

I returned my Flip to Costco and went over to Radio Shack to buy the dual camera SANYO Xacti, which shoots both video and pictures.  Although not as convenient as the Flip, due to needing a cord to upload, it is a great camera.  Unfortunately, Panasonic bought SANYO and I’ve been told they will no longer be making the Xacti.  So I’ve been in a quandary as to which camera to recommend to moms…until now.  The Sony Bloggie Live comes with huge conveniences such as a flip out USB arm, Wi-Fi uploading capabilities, direct posting to social sites, a built-in light, live video streaming, and great clarity with its 12.8 mp camera, and full 1080p HD video capabilities.

The Bloggie Live

Features

• 12.8 megapixels
• Built-in USB charge – just like the Flip without having to hunt for cables
• Sociable – easily share your photos with Facebook, YouTube, Picasa, Flickr, or Dailymotion
• Built-in WiFi
• Built-in tripod connector
• Streams your video footage live via your Qik account and Wi-Fi connection
• Stores up to 3 hrs of web optimized MP4 footage with 8GB of internal memory
• Built-in LED light to add more light to your subject
• HDMI output built-in so you can share your videos on your TV
• Self-timer
• Weighs just 4.8 oz, lightweight and very pocketable
• Face Detection technology recognizes faces and optimizes camera settings for both video and still images
• SteadyShot^® image stabilization reduces blur caused by the camera shaking

Pros

Cons

• Can’t share with twitter (an odd exclusion)
• You have to take pictures in landscape if you want them to be in the right orientation when you share (see the picture of Angry Bird Pig on Facebook below)
• Once you hit your WiFi network, you can’t send your pictures automatically to your computer (like  a Eye-Fi card), you need to use the USB arm to upload
• The picture becomes cloudy when you zoom in on something 10 feet away or farther.  Better to not zoom in, the picture is clearer and crop it on your computer

 Main Bloggie Live Menu Options

Once you press the menu button, you can choose one of four options to send your pictures to:

1.)  Live Streaming – wow, now this is a cool feature.  You can actually stream your child’s performance or awards ceremony live to your Qik account.  Why is this beneficial?  Because your out-of-state grandparents can log into Qik.com and watch the stream live, as if they were there with you.  How cool is that?  I streamed a brief video to try this feature out and as I was filming I could see it live on my Qik account.  After you’re done with the video, you can tag it and even share your Qik.com video with your networks with a click of the button to Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.  Trust me, I tried sharing my video to Twitter and YouTube and the video uploaded immediately.   Here’s the video on my YouTube account (warning:  it’s a yawner):

See Qik.com to see the same video that originated in Qik.com before I sent it over to YouTube.com .Let me tell you, taking video of a live event and then uploading it later in my office or hotel room is incredibly tedious.  Usually the connection in a hotel room is so slow, I don’t even get to upload the video until I get  back home due to transmission breakdowns.  By then, the video is old news.  The Sony Bloggie Live is going to give me a tremendous advantage especially at shows like the Consumer Electronics Show or E3, the video game tradeshow.  Better yet, I can offer our readers a glimpse of what I’m seeing even faster.

                                                                                                                                                                          You can directly upload your pics to your Facebook page.

2.)  Post and Share – you can post pictures and video to Facebook, YouTube, Picasa, Flickr, and Daillymotion by touching on the Share button after your picture is taken.  You can add any comments and click on Upload and
your picture or video will be uploaded once you are connected to WiFi.  You can also go back through old pictures  and share them at anytime.  I uploaded this pic of my son’s favorite pastime friend from Angry Birds to my Facebook page.  It uploaded immediately through our home Wi-Fi.  If you don’t have a 12.8 mp phone camera, most of us don’t, the Bloggie Live is a great way to capture stunning pictures and upload to your favorite social channels to show family and friends what you’re up to.

3.)  Save to PlayMemories Online – you can post directly to Sony’s PlayMemories online which allow you to view your pictures through the PlayMemories app on your tablet, Sony PlayStation 3, smartphone, and even some TV’s.  This feature will be available in Spring 2012.

 

Sync Your Pics to Your SmartPhone

4.)  View on Smartphone – You can view your Bloggie Live videos and photos on your smartphone or tablet too by connecting the devices together using PlayMemories Mobile.   This is handy if you want to see your pictures on a bigger screen or you are in a place where you do not have any WiFi connection.  By uploading your photos to your phone, you can then use your phone’s data connection to share pictures/videos with your social networks or through e-mail.  Clever, Sony thought of everything.

 

The Sony Bloggie Live does a good job at close-up pictures.

A Mom’s Perspective

Overall, I’m pretty impressed with the Sony Bloggie Live.  So many opportunities  for sharing pics and video are now available from the Sony Live.  I also love the camera’s many conveniences such as the Wi-Fi, USB arm, and small form factor.  Honestly, when I was with my friend, Beth Blecherman of Techmamas.com at the Sony booth at the Consumer Electronics Show, we went all over the booth to find the new Bloggie Live, I was less than enthused.  It wasn’t until I got one in my hands to use that I could really see the benefits of this great dual camera.  I’d say the main negative would be the zoom feature, especially for long distances, it degrades the picture far too much.

 

Nonetheless, I have added the Sony Bloggie Live as one of our favorite gadgets on Pintrest, which only our very favorite gadgets get this honor.    We also added the Bloggie as one of our recommended gifts in our Valentines Day recommendations.  The Sony Bloggie Live sells for $248 plus free super saving shipping through Amazon.com.

 

 

* I was given a Sony Bloggie camera in exchange for my honest opinions.